Textile fibers such as yarns are wound onto molded plastic tubes to facilitate handling of the yarn, for coloring the yarn with dye for example. In a yarn dyeing process, tubes carrying packages of wound yarn are received on spindles of a dye kettle to receive a dyes for coloring the tube-supported yarn. Known plastic yarn tubes include interfitting male and female elements at opposite ends to facilitate end-to-end stacking of multiple tubes on a spindle. To provide for a constant outer diameter across the nested interface between adjacent tubes, the male element of known tubes is reduced in diameter for contact with the female element at an inward radial location.
To secure the plastic yarn tubes to one of the spindles of the dye kettle, axial load is applied to the stack of tubes. Axial loading may also be induced in the stacked tubes as a result of differential thermal expansion between the plastic tubes and the dye kettle, typically made of metal. The axial load that is applied to, or induced in, the stack of tubes is transferred between the nested ends of adjacent tubes at the inwardly located contact surfaces. The axial loading of the tubes at the inwardly located contact surfaces tends to drive the female end portion outwardly, potentially leading to a bursting-type failure of the female end.